Stroud High School

Hi, my daughter has got selected for Stroud High and is quite close in ranking for High School for girls gloucester. But as we are in Bristol, not sure of how the travel would work out to Stroud. Gloucester train is an option and we are near parkway. But some posts makes me think Stroud is a better place to study than HSG, gloucester.

Congratulations to your dd. That is a horrible journey though. Are you planning for her to commute from Bristol to Stroud in the long term? I don’t think there are any other kids at the Stroud schools coming from so far away. Do you not have any good schools locally?

Did you put Ribston down? Where is she in the rankings for HSFG? Not sure why you'd want your DD to do such a horrendous journey every day though. My DDs are at HSFG and get the service bus from Cheltenham every day. They're tired enough with that travel - the step up from Yr 6 to Yr 7 is a big one, and children are exhausted by it. Getting the train from Bristol every day will make it a very long day. She'd have to walk from the station as well.

They are all lovely schools, but you’ll probably get the best advice by phoning admissions at the schools and asking whether they have other children making that sort of journey and what they’d advise. You might not want to hear this, but that is an awful journey for a child twice a day, and while the schools are good, I wouldn’t consider that commute for a child. The furthest children at the Stroud schools tend to come from Swindon, on the train, as that is manageable. There are a handful from Cheltenham and villages along the way, and some from Gloucester and Tetbury. But not Bristol! Don’t know what it’s like at the Gloucester schools, but can’t imagine it’s much different.

The train doesn't go through to Stroud from Bristol. I think it stops at Stonehouse which would be around 45 mins to an hour walk to the school. Buses from there aren't great afaik. I think the other option would be train to Swindon and change giving a 15 min walk from Stroud.

Unless there is school transport I wouldn't consider it. I would also be dubious about the travelling time to Gloucester from Bristol station let alone the walk/bus time at either end. Also after school activities may be problematic with such a long day. Having done that commute it was horrendous, I really couldn't imagine inflicting it on my dc.

The train from Bristol doesn't go to Stonehouse, or Stroud. You'd have to go to Swindon or Gloucester/ Cheltenham and change. To get from Bristol Parkway to Stroud in time for the start of school she'd have to catch either the 06.38 (via Cheltenham) or 07.01 (via Swindon). At the end of the day she'd be getting back to Parkway between 17.19 and 18.23, depending on whether she's in time to get the 16.05 from Stroud.

Lots of children do get the train to the Stroud grammars, but I don't think they're coming from Bristol.

I did used to see one girl getting the train at Parkway, in what I'm pretty sure was the HSFG uniform. But it was just the one.

SimultaneousEquation DD1 is at SHS and there are girls in her year coming from Monmouth, one from Birmingham I think and loads from Swindon. Pretty sure there's one from Bristol way. Many of them are travelling over an hour each way, and a fair few longer than that. We seem to be in the minority living locally. Lots of children travel a very long way to attend all of Gloucestershire's grammars.

Lots of kids at the Stroud grammars come from Swindon: it’s a really easy commute by train. It’s not necessarily the distance that matters, it’s whether the journey is feasible in a reasonable amount of time, and whether the commute is predictable. I know there are kids from Birmingham at Pates but there is a direct train line.

Lots of kids at the Stroud grammars come from Swindon: it’s a really easy commute by train. It’s not necessarily the distance that matters, it’s whether the journey is feasible in a reasonable amount of time, and whether the commute is predictable. I know there are kids from Birmingham at Pates but there is a direct train line.